Seasteading emerged from shared belief that applying philosophy to practical action requires exiting most accepted institutions. I thought it was about time I turned on the recorder to capture one of these conversations.

Mike Gibson and Reid Spitz started as philosophy students and became venture capitalists and staunch seasteaders. Can philosophy ignite action? Reid and Mike explain why that’s its only function.

Mike Gibson was working on his doctorate in philosophy at the University of Oxford before he left to became an associate at Thiel Capital and the VP of Grants for the Thiel Foundation, where he helped run the 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship. Today he’s co-founder of the 1517 Fund, which funds young entrepreneurs who exit the university system.

Reid Spitz at Stanford has studied cognition, symbolic systems, the philosophy of Neitzche, linguistics, computer science, and economics. He is an Associate at Formation 8, which funds companies with the potential to transform whole industries. Reid has also spent time at OpenGov, which provides transparency for governments to share data.